In the previous blog post, we discussed the first step of gathering the business requirements and needs in a proper way, and then formulating them into concrete, measurable goals that the team can utilize. The next step is to set up the team itself, which includes staffing, and that is what I am going to discuss in this article.
Staffing the team
In this article, I will discuss strategies for staffing and assembling your IT development team or project. I will also explore valuable tools and techniques that can significantly facilitate this process when used correctly. As always, it is easy to complicate things if we do not think ahead.
Staffing a team can be approached in various ways, using different methods and tools. In this article, I will describe one of many ways, and you can select the parts that you find interesting and in the order you prefer.
Compile desired competencies, qualities, and experiences
Now that we have our list of crisp goals following the SMART method, we can take the next step, which is to link the desired competencies, qualities, and experiences that can help us achieve these goals. It may involve technical skills such as Java, C++, or other programming languages, or knowledge of specific technologies like OAuth2, JWT, SAML. It can also include other skills such as strong teaching abilities or proficiency in English. When performing this exercise, it is important to be as specific as possible. It is better to think too broadly than risk being too narrow.
By thinking broadly, I mean not only focusing on the technical aspects of a project but also considering everything surrounding the production itself. This becomes especially important in today's agile landscape, where we constantly need to anchor our work and be prepared for changing requirements that impact production in various ways.
Assess existing resources
Once you have compiled lists of desired competencies, qualities, and experiences, the next step is to assess what we have to work with. What desired resources already exist within the team or the company? To answer this question in a straightforward manner, it is immensely helpful if you have already conducted individual knowledge inventories, allowing you to easily gain a clear understanding of the resources and competencies available within the team and the rest of the organization. I plan to address how to conduct a comprehensive knowledge inventory in another article among the blog posts, so stay tuned for that!
Supplement with additional resources
After covering as much as possible with internal resources, it is time to supplement with external expertise. The best practices for doing this are worthy of their own article series, but in broad terms, it involves activities such as recruiting new staff, hiring consultants, or forming partnerships with other companies in your network who can contribute their resources to the team.
In the long run, there is often value in further educating internal personnel in areas that cannot be covered internally at present. However, bear in mind that the areas of focus should be enduring and have long-term relevance. There is no point in developing personnel in areas that are transient and may disappear after six months or less.
Diversify the team
A good recipe is to create teams with diverse members, fostering a creative environment where a variety of perspectives and approaches can be discussed. This allows for ideas and aspects that may not have emerged as easily in a homogenous group. When diversifying the team, consider aspects such as age groups, gender identities, ethnicities, professional backgrounds, etc. However, having an extremely diverse team can also pose challenges, as it may lead to endless, convoluted discussions on different concepts and ideas. It places certain demands on the team or project leader.
I have personally served as a project leader in projects where the diversification was taken to such an extreme that no one (almost) had anything in common with anyone else in the project. This resulted in very peculiar discussions that I constantly had to guide. Setting time limits on different tasks can be helpful, but it is not as simple when almost everything drags on...
Encourage collaboration and create an open environment
This is an essential aspect that unfortunately many struggle with in practice. It is easy to articulate prominent words about how great things are within the team or the company, but it is not entirely simple to implement it in a way that most people truly feel it. An important first step is to create what is often referred to as a psychologically safe environment. Often, a good start is for managers (leadership) to set the tone by, for example, exposing their own vulnerabilities and discussing their own mistakes and how they handled them. When leadership actively encourages risk-taking (within reasonable bounds) and openly tolerates mistakes, it tends to contribute significantly to creating an open atmosphere.
Feedback is another crucial aspect. While most people can learn to give and receive positive feedback, not all feedback necessarily has to be positive. To provide more constructive feedback, it is important that both the sender and the receiver are effective and respectful; otherwise, it is easy for the parties to become emotional. To facilitate giving and receiving feedback, it can be beneficial to practice this within the team through a shared exercise.
Now that we have clarified the goals, staffed the team, and created conditions for effective collaboration within the team, it's time to think about the next step, which involves getting started in the right way and introducing the agile mindset and Scrum as naturally as possible and as early as possible.
